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Progression of Google Logos (5/20-24/02)! ... Other Holiday "Google" logos!
Latest
Virus! - W32/Yaha.g@MM 
McAfee.com has raised
the risk assessment of W32/Yaha.g@MM to MEDIUM RISK FOR HOME
USERS. This mass-mailing worm attempts to disable anti-virus
and firewall protection, leaving infected systems vulnerable.
As always, we recommend that you keep your anti-virus software
up-to-date for the best protection.
McAfee.com
will continue to update you on the latest details of the W32/Yaha.g@MM
virus.
2002 WEBBY Awards!
 2002
WEBBY Awards! The International Academy of Digital Arts &
Sciences Tuesday awarded its picks to the best, brightest
and most bizarre rest stops on the Information Superhighway.
For the second year, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google
received the Best Practices Award, which is bestowed on
the site that receives the highest overall marks in each
of the Webby judging criteria and serve as a model for excellence.
"This year's winners and nominees surely live up to the
title 'world wide'," said Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain.
"The Webby Awards are proud to honor the Web sites that
are setting the standards for the medium and bringing the
world online."
What are "reciprocal links? ... Are they necessary?
Good question! They are links found on other sites that point to your own site. In turn, you place a similar link back to that other site from your own. They can be in the form of a logo or a simple text link.
Who Cares? SEARCH ENGINES are now measuring how many links you have to your site from other sites. The more external links, the better your listing. It is all part of each search engines formula ... usually a secret formula!
From  - "Google evaluates the number of incoming and outgoing links to a site, the
circular associations of linking around the Web and data related to
communities of Web sites, trying to identify local areas with unique
themes in common.
According to Silverstein, it's relatively easy to get good ranking in
Google. "If you make it easier for us we like you," he said. He stressed
that you should be associated with reputable sites, making sure those
sites have keywords related to yours. It's also crucial to use targeted
keywords throughout your site, and have relevant explanatory text around
your keywords and links.
"
From  - "Paul Gardi from Teoma/AskJeeves said, "We begin with text analysis."
Next, Teoma considers "general popularity," comparing sites, for example,
with one link coming in vs. a site with three links coming in."
Do you have friends that have similar businesses, that also have web sites? Let me know who they are, what their URL is. I will then place a link or logo on your site pointing to your friend's site. Then either you or I can contact their designer to place a reciprocal link back to your site.
Sounds Good? PLEASE Let me know what I can do to assist you!
Rich
Designer Friends:
As most of you know, reciprocal links are becoming more
and more important, as long as if they are from valuable
and related subjects. I would like to add your firm on my
"associates" page along with a brief description.
If you have a similar section on your site and so desire,
please add my site to yours:
Rich's Web Design - "Custom web design and development
services in NC with professional site upgrades, search engine
optimization and clean graphic design."
or copy this:
<a href="http://www.richswebdesign.com" target="_blank">
<B>Rich's Web Design</b> - "Custom web design and development
services in NC with professional site upgrades,
search engine optimization and clean graphic design."</a>
Mozilla 1.0 Browser Released - Far Better than Netscape!
We are pleased to announce the release of Mozilla 1.0, available for download now.
Mozilla is an open-source web browser, designed for standards compliance, performance and
portability. We coordinate the development and testing of the browser by providing
discussion forums, software engineering tools, releases and bug tracking.
June Search
Engine News!From
www.searchengine-news.com
Google
- recently released some cool new tools for you to play with at http://labs.google.com/
One
of the new tools is a "Google Glossary" which is a tool that
gives you definitions for words, phrases and acronyms. In some cases
it's a pretty good tool, in others it needs some work.The next tool
is "Google Sets" which automatically create sets of words
from a few examples. One of the most amazing demos is "Voice
Search". You can call a telephone number and Google will do
a search based on what you said and display the results in a browser
window. The last tool in the lab is a "Keyboard Shortcuts"
demo that allows you to navigate the search results using your keyboard
and shortcut keys. It's an interesting method to use, but not particularly
useful in our opinion. Regardless, we think it's great they're testing
new ideas in an effort to find things that work.
Inktomi
- No significant changes at Inktomi this month.
HotBot
- No significant changes at HotBot this month.
AltaVista
- No significant changes at AltaVista this month.
Lycos
/Fast - did have a large update adding a lot of new pages to the
index this time.
DMOZ
- No significant changes this month at ODP.
Looksmart
- "Class action lawsuit filed against LookSmart " -
"On
May 9, 2002, Legal Staffing Partners, Inc., an express listing customer,
filed a proposed class action lawsuit in Superior Court in San Francisco
County. The complaint alleges breach of contract, unfair business practices
and false advertising in connection with the launch of the Company’s
new Small Business Listings product announced on April 10, 2002. The
complaint seeks restitution, unspecified compensatory damages, injunctive
relief and attorneys’ fees. LookSmart believes that the allegations
against it are without merit and intends to contest the allegations
vigorously."
If this case
moves forward, customers of LookSmart that purchased their listings prior
to the service change to "Pay Per Click" will likely be contacted
and asked to join in the suit.
LookSmart
UK now using Google
Yahoo
- will be making a decision in June as to who will be their search engine
provider of choice. There is a very good chance that Google may lose
this opportunity for a variety of reasons. June may be a interesting
month based on this change.
Overture
- extended their contract with AltaVista May 30th, 2002 and will continue
to provide the top three results under "Products and Services"
at AltaVista for the next 12 months.
7 Qualities of Effective Web Writing! from 
1. Clarity - Clarity is more than an absence of ambiguity. Writing clearly is like telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Your writing needs to make sense, just like your Website does.
2. Relevance - Readers expect relevant content online. If they don't find it quickly, they'll leave. One way to increase the relevance of your writing is to have plenty of relevant links within your Web page that will add to your arguments, and back up your claims.
3. Brevity - Make sure your writing isn't woolly. You need to write with the precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpel. No superfluous words allowed. Write for effect, by all means, but get to the point -- and fast! In other words, be succinct.
4. Scanability and Readability - A study titled "Concise, SCANNABLE, and Objective: How to Write for the Web" indicated that users prefer to scan rather than read, want text to be short and to the point, and detest overly-hyped promotional writing ("marketese").
5. Consistency - Be consistent, not only in your writing, but also within the site itself. Have consistent navigation aids throughout your work that allow the user to know where they can go next.
6. Freedom from Errors - Having your work riddled with errors will not present you as an amateur, but it'll also spoil the experience for the user. Use your spell check religiously (and please write in if you spot a mistake in this article, as it will never be lived down!).
7. Good Integration with the Site Design - Designing Web pages should be a combined, iterative course of action between the writer and the designer, because a Website's design can have a big impact on its content. What sounds good in a text file might be all wrong once the text is incorporated into the design.
 Rolist
Search Engine ends Beta Testing!
In the Spring (2002),
I registered all of our sites with a new search engine called "Rolist."
It was under "beta testing" and all sites were accepted. They
have now ended their beta testing and have the following offer. I am not
sure if you want to pay the $25, but I wanted to at least let you know
about it. Please call me (408-9075) and I will take care of the "paper
work."
"Rolist
would like to take this opportunity to thank you for participating in
our BETA. We have been receiving an overwhelming response from members
and
searchers alike. It gives us great pleasure to announce that Rolist
will be
exiting BETA.Normally, registering a website with Rolist is only $25.00
per year. As a
show of appreciation for being a member of Rolist during BETA, we would
like
to extend to you the following offer:
Through June
15, 2002, BETA members will receive a LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP for the
price of one year. Again, for only $25.00 you will be included in
our database for LIFE. This is our way of saying thank you for participating
in our BETA testing."
LavaSoft - Adware Removal Program! 
Ad-aware is a
free multi spyware removal utility, that scans your memory, registry and hard drives for
known spyware components and lets you remove them safely. Many options like scanning
depth or automatic modes can be set in the preferences menu.Ad-aware features an easy to
use wizard-style interface, guiding you through the scanning and removal process.
A detailed log file can be created automatically or manually after scanning.
The lastest "spyware" is a nasty item called SahAgent.exe that makes IE freak-out and not connect to ANY site. Others have stated, ... "It killed my Internet!". Go Here to read a valuable post about this NASTY worm! ... Install Ad-Aware and follow the directions from "Die Hard".
Parasites\Scumware systems detected by Ad-aware: - All versions of Adware, Alexa, Aureate, Comet Cursor, Cydoor, Doubleclick, DSSAgent, EverAd, eZula, Expedioware, Flyswat, OfferCompanion, Hotbar, OnFlow, TimeSink, Web3000, Webhancer, Transponder, Wnad, ZapSpot, SurfPlus, AdvertBar, NetPal, CashBar, WurldMediaBHO, MessageMates, EWA, Ezsearchbar, CommonName, GoHip, DownloadWare, NetworkEssentials, ImiServerIEPlugin, TopMoxie, Lop.Com, BDE Projector, UCmore, OpenMe, JaypeeSysBHo, FlashTrack, NetRadar, NetZany, many BrowserHijackers and more...
336-408-9075
Rich@RichsWebDesign.com
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